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The Right Size for Your Legs
Does the bike fit your legs? When you're straddling the bike, you should have at least 3/4 inch to as much as 2 inches of clearance over the top tube. This assumes you're trying standard road frames. Some manufacturers are adding "compact" bikes to their line. Compact doesn't mean it's a small bike for small riders; it means it's a bike using a shorter seat tube to reduce weight and stiffen the bike. These bikes have a sloped top tube and a lot of seatpost showing. Unless your legs are quite short, expect to have plenty of clearance. So, now how do you know if the bike fits?
Terry bikes are not compact, so plan on the 3/4" to 2" clearance. If you look at the geometry charts for our bikes, you'll see a "standover" number. This is the distance from the ground to the top of the top tube (crossbar). Measure your inseam with your biking shoes on. Your inseam should be 3/4" to 2" longer than the standover to fit a road bike properly.
The Right Size for Your Upper Body
Does the bike fit your upper body? Specifically, can you reach the handlebars comfortably, without feeling as though you're too stretched out? You really have to ride the bike to know. Just sitting on a bike at the shop doesn't tell you much. When you're riding, your position will change a bit. You'll move around on the saddle; you'll use your arms more in rolling terrain than in flat; the dynamic fit and static fit are very different.
I can't emphasize enough how small changes in the rotation of the handlebars or the position of the brake/shift levers can affect your comfort on the bike. Typically, we find our customers prefer the handlebars rotated up slightly with the brake/shift levers also moved up a bit on the bars. This takes some stress off your shoulders and makes the brakes more accessible from the top of the brake hoods. These subtle changes are often the difference between a bike you love to ride and one you hate to ride.
If the reach is just so long that nothing seems to work, investigate the possibility of a shorter stem for the bike. This will bring the handlebars closer. Raising the stem also helps. Here's something to shoot for: when you're riding with your hands on the hoods, your back should be at about a 50 degree angle to horizontal. Competitive riders will prefer leaning over more. Really casual riders may want to sit up more.
Twenty plus years of fitting women to bikes means all of our bikes have an optimized stem and top tube length to guarantee that the majority of women will feel our bikes fit like a glove.
The Terry Fit
A woman has different muscle placement than a man, requiring her to sustain a greater amount of force on muscles which are, on average, smaller than a man's as well. That means you may feel stretched out and experience neck and shoulder pain on a poorly fitting bike. In analyzing these differences from a mechanical engineering perspective, we were convinced that the top tube of a bicycle must be shorter on a woman's bike to provide the proper fit.
If you're roughly under 5'3", you'll probably fit best on one of our two smallest size bikes which have a 24" front wheel and full size 700c rear wheel.
Everyone has the same goal when making a smaller bicycle for the smaller rider: make the top tube short enough! By using a smaller wheel, we're able to make the top tube the correct length (you can reach the handlebars comfortably) and the seat tube angle normal (you won't be forever "pushing back" on the saddle). A 24" road tire allows the top tube can be as short as 48cm with no overlap. We use 24" in the front on our smaller road bikes (17.5" and under) so we can have more latitude for good design (i.e., there's always room for adjustment later). The 700C rear wheel gives you equivalent gearing. Nope, it doesn't feel weird. It feels like it fits!
Thousands of test cases, fit sessions and custom builds later, the result is that women are more comfortable, can ride further, faster and spend more time on the bike without neck, back, shoulder or other discomfort.
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